Velveteen Vignettes
by ChiaraMon
Summary: Life as a young, timid faunus girl training to kill monsters was bound to be difficult, but sometimes the biggest challenges are found outside of the battlefield. Just a couple more years and she'll be a huntress- provided, of course, that life at Beacon Academy doesn't turn her into a monster first. A collection of skits, sketches and scenes out of the life of Velvet Scarlatina.
1. 1: Bad Hare Day

"Please, stop..." a meek voice squeaked out amidst the chorus of howls and laughter that boomed across the cafeteria table. The pleading cry was practically yanked out of the timid Velvet as she squirmed and attempted to dislodge her head from the tightly-clamped hand that held her long rabbit ear like a vice.

"Haha, I told ya it was real," boasted the owner of that hand, Cardin. Across the table sat the three lackeys that made up the rest of his team, if it could be called that; the four of them together behaved more like a loose pack of stray animals than like any other team she'd met in her time at Beacon. Even the way they stuck together seemed hostile- not out of genuine bonding or even common belief, but merely out of greater disdain for everyone else around them.

"What a _freak_," one of them echoed, as if just waiting for the chance to demonstrate that aimless antipathy.

_'What did I do to deserve this...?'_ Quickly realizing the futility of her protests against the torment of this meatpuppet's apparent curiosity about her anatomy, she turned her thoughts inward. _'Why...?'_ Why was this happening to her? This was _her_ table; since the day Velvet's team formed last year, the four of them had laid claim to this section of the dining hall without a single incident.

How fitting that on this of all days, when her teammates were nowhere to be found - when Coco was off trying to scramble together last-minute plans, when Fox was squeezing extra training into an already precariously occupied week of assignments and study, when Yatsuhashi had skipped lunch to pour into textbooks in the quiet refuge of the library - when everyone had seemingly coincidentally abandoned her, that this would be the day that pack of vultures would turn their cruel sights on _her_.

Though truthfully, she realized, if any day had had the bad fortune to invite such torment, it would have to be this one. After how her day had been going, she could hardly have been surprised when Cardin and his satellites approached her and invited themselves to take a seat.

Velvet, the meager and unassuming faunus girl, was _not_ having a good day.

* * *

_7:41 a.m.,  
_Velvet's eyes slowly pried themselves open, half-buried into her tawny pillowcase. She blinked several times before even testing to move a muscle, seemingly not convinced that she was fully roused out of her unconsciousness yet. It would take minutes still, but she soon became physically aware enough to conclude that she was indeed awake. Her morning routine would begin with a coffee and a brisk jog, and by now she reckoned she might as well just stay awake until her 6 a.m. alarm.

... Her alarm?

A fleeting thought jolted her out of her post-slumber haze as she practically flipped over in bed to check her scroll. _'No, please don't tell me,' _she started, fumbling to press the home button on her scroll sat on her dresser. She pressed the button once, twice, three times... and no screen would appear._ 'It died?!'_ With an uncharacteristic grunt, she slapped her forehead and dragged her hand down her face, as if to shame herself into never again neglecting to charge her scroll by smearing this memory into her brain through the pores of her skin.

Looking around her room, she noticed a distinct lack of familiar snoozing faces; Velvet was used to being the first one on her whole team to wake up. Now, not only was she the last, but she took long enough that the others had all gotten dressed and started on their ways?

The bunny scurried out of her bed and scrambled over to the check the bathroom clock. _'TWO HOURS?!'_ She shouted internally. She was close to two hours behind her schedule. In a rush, she ran over to make her morning beverage only to find the last scoop had already been claimed. She looked to the top of the lid in her hand as finally she registered the note scrawled on the top: "SORRY! OUT OF COFFEE- I'LL GET MORE TODAY. ~_CoCo_~" Frozen at the counter by a sudden wave of frustration at her situation, hardly even able to take notice of her leg as it begin rapidly bouncing up and down in place.

Though she was reluctant to admit it at first, the drink her team leader had introduced her to had rather quickly grown on her, and only now could she admit to realizing how deeply it had seeped into her and woven itself into her morning ritual. The thought of facing the sluggish day ahead of her without its caffeine in her system - especially given that she was going to be deprived of her morning exercise as well - wracked her mind as her fist balled up. With a huff, she shook her head and pressed forward, changing her clothes as quickly as she could. _'I'm late! I'm late!'_ were the only words that were left running through the hare's mind as she hurried to barely make her first class.

* * *

Today was another demonstration in professor Goodwitch's Convocation in Combat - a mock combat symposium class - and today, some first-year students had been selected for the duels. All of the teams Velvet remembered from her class were standing around the center stage, along with quite a few new faces. And two of those faces were currently standing on the sidelines awaiting their summons, with very different attitudes about the situation, judging by their facial expressions and body language.

The class had gone by relatively the same as it always had, though there was a rather disconcerted air that followed the mock battle after seeing how drastically uneven the duel had proven to be. Velvet had trouble making out much of the action from behind her taller teammates, but she had repeatedly noticed a vaguely annoyed Coco checking her scroll, biting her nails and sighing at various points.

After the class adjourned, Coco strode out of the auditorium with a stretch, followed by the rest of team CFVY. Velvet piped up first, "Hey Coco, um... is everything alright today?"

Without turning to face her, the leader replied, "ah, yeah... I guess." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "I dunno. I'm trying to get together with that _friend_ from the other night, but everything's just getting messed up."

_'That friend,'_ Velvet always thought it was funny how courtly and aloof Coco was with the details of her personal life. It was never _'my girlfriend' _or _'that guy I met at that rad scene downtown' _or _'the cutie from class who let me borrow their notes', _it was always just _'that friend'._

"Velvet..." Coco turned to face the faunus girl, head-level with her ears, and rubbed the back of her own neck as she looked off to the side. "I know I said we'd hang out tonight..." Velvet stopped and her eyes sank to the ground knowingly.

An uncomfortable pause washed over the two, eventually broken by Velvet. "We can do it some other time..." she resigned without an attempt to conceal her disappointment.

Coco sighed and shook her head as she winced. "I'm sorry Velvet. I'll make it up to you, I promise. I'll make it up ten-fold!"

The group continued to their dorm, a noticeable drop in their pace. Eventually all three of Velvet's teammates parted to go about their own business, and Velvet was left alone with her thoughts.

_'I just can not catch a break today...' _She plopped back on her bed, ears flopping across her pillow and smacking against her headboard._ "Ow!" _She exclaimed, quickly tossing to her side and gently rubbing away the pain. _'Thanks, universe. I didn't need you to prove my point, but thanks, I guess...'_

After settling in to take a nap, waking up and messing about on her scroll for an indeterminable period of time, boredom eventually outweighed her defeated lethargy and she hopped back out of bed, deciding that getting a proper meal would do her well.

* * *

Soon after, she sat at her table, the familiar made unfamiliar by the lack of her friends. It was an eerie feeling, and one that brought back memories of an awkward girl on her first day at the prestigious academy, burying her head into a tray of vegetables, mashed potatoes and juice. Simultaneously she wanted friends and wanted no one to notice her, no one to talk to her, no one to _look_ at her, knowing exactly what feature they would hone in on first.

She was not that girl anymore, but those fears still plagued her and in this crowded environment, she felt herself reunited with that younger Velvet as she buried her head down into her tray.

After finishing her salad, the unmistakable sound of boots walking up to her and stopping to sit down, the feeling of bodies crashing down on the seats beside her, and the expectant, judgmental gazes of complete strangers alarmed her. She looked at the new faces and sheepishly gulped down her last bite from the bowl. "H-Hello," she sputtered out, waving feebly at the four faces gathered around her.

"Care to help me settle a bet?" The boy who sat next to her implored, wielding a deep and determined stare. Instantly, she recognized him from convocation and she remembered just how mercilessly and aggressively he'd tossed around that other boy- and, unnervingly, how much utter _spite_ lingered in his face after their fight. She remembered every detail about his unrefined movements and his reliance on power over form. Impact over technique.

Now was no different from then. The face before her morphed into the exact same embattled glare she saw in that mock battle. But now, _she_ was his opponent. He reached out and grabbed her by a rabbit ear and she cried out in protest. It was an unheeded plea, and his grip only tightened the more she fought back. This was how he handled everything, she was sure. It was apparent in class, and it was clear now. Impact over technique. Force over etiquette.

Across the table were three other faces leering at her in similarly expectant wide-eyed glares. This had been a premeditated assault, Velvet could tell. They were clearly very experienced predators, and likewise, she was all-too-experienced prey. They tracked her. They waited until she was alone. And then they moved in to attack.

Only... she wasn't alone. She was in a school cafeteria, at a very populated time of day. A _sea_ of people surrounded her - students and faculty alike - and the sound of her surroundings enveloped her, reminding her that she was, at all times, in every direction, mere feet away from entire teams of peers. She was perhaps the _least_ alone one could possibly be, at least physically, and yet, no one would help her. Not a single body in her vicinity seemed up to the task of intervening in the harassment she'd been selected for. Or... they didn't think of her as deserving any better in the first place.

After what felt like ages, the brutality ceased and she was set free. The hand clutching her ear finally let go, but the feeling it imprinted on her remained. The ache lingered on her rabbit ear and would keep it's grasp on her mind as long as she could still feel it. She was free from her harasser's hand, but as her mind replayed the scene over and over again, she was still trapped in the moment and she was still alone in the crowded dining hall.

A couple of feet away, Velvet noticed one particular table whose eight occupants had been a little bit too overt about eyeing the scene that had just unfolded. As she looked closer, she recognized one of them as the other boy from the mock battle today- the one who had been pitted against the very same brute that had just violated her space. _'At least I'm not the only one who's had to deal with that monster today,' _she thought as she looked to the ground and shuffled along. _'I guess...'_

As she walked away, her head hung itself in shame and her pace hastened. The tray of now-unappealing cafeteria food shook in her unsteady grasp as she walked as quickly as possible to find some remote refuge where she could finish the last of her meal- if she even _wanted_ to by now. She lifted a hand up to conceal one half of her face as tears streamed down her cheeks. Ultimately, she thought it would perhaps be best if she left the cafeteria entirely. She discarded the tray and uneaten lunch and made her way back to the one place where she knew she could find a brief respite of comfort and safety.

Velvet broke into a scurry as she fled to the haven of her team's dorm room, taking care to avoid looking at any of the bodies her peripheral vision could still detect through her irritated, teary eyes. She tried her best to tune out everyone and everything in her path and only envision herself in her bed, in the safety of her covers, and hopefully alone so that she could cry in peace and get the last dreadful memory out of her head- or at least push it back, into the same dark corner of her mind that held countless other memories of trauma and discrimination because of her heritage.

Soon she reached her building. Her wing, her floor, her hall... her dorm. The door came closer and closer into sight, and as Velvet approached, her heart stopped and she sank to her feet. She was not getting into her room any time soon.

Hung on the doorknob was a familiar black beret. A stop sign. A warning to trespassers: **Danger ahead. Proceed at your own peril**. This beret, a flashy fashion statement by day, doubled as Coco's personal 'do not disturb' sign. And right now, she had a _friend_ over.

Opposite her room, Velvet sunk back into the wall and her head hit the surface with a thud. She looked up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, hoping she could just disappear into the blackness that enveloped her vision as tears broke yet again. Her legs gave way and she sank helplessly to the floor, arms on her knees. The only sound left in the world was the shuttering of her eyelids as her tear ducts emptied themselves onto her face. Her head fell into her arms and she poured all of her remaining lucid effort into stifling whatever breaths and sniffles might be heard by any of the nearby rooms' occupants.

There was nowhere for her to go, and she had never felt more exposed in her life. She was an outcast once again. Alone, vulnerable, scared, and far too hurt to care about hiding it now. She had nowhere left to run, nowhere to hide- she had _nowhere_, full stop. There was no place for her and for the first time in years, she felt utterly unbelonging in this world. She screamed inside herself, pleading for one last refuge, begging that she could just find just one last place to feel welcome, even if she had to completely vanish from this plane to find it. Inside her mind, all of her life's pain seemed to rekindle at once, set alight by how utterly displaced she felt. All of her emotion was consumed by the flame and as the last of her tears dried off on her sleeves, she felt the embers scatter to the wind.

And then, nothing.

Velvet sat silent in the hallway for an amount of time she could no longer even perceive. Time _felt_ different to her. _She_ felt different to her; whenever she was alone and feeling introspective, and looked inside herself, she could feel her own self-awareness like a reflection in the mirror. She could see herself from the perspective of an actual outsider She could feel how timid she was, how much she wanted to hide from the world, how much she wanted to blend into the background, or surround herself with the few people she could come to trust. She could reach out and touch it like it was a tangible object sitting right next to her. Like it was _her_ sitting right next to her.

But right now, she couldn't feel any of that. It all fell away into distant scenery in her head, far away from that self-awareness mirror inside the room of her mind. All she could see in that reflection right now was anger, and all she wanted to do in this moment was find a deserving face, and smash it.

If anyone were there to observe the scene, they would know what it looked like to see a bunny _break_. Velvet sat against that wall still as a statue for so long that any passerby would surely have been convinced she was a performer, trained to resist her muscles' itch to move and intent on fighting every breath she took to show no signs of life. If they came close enough, they would soon notice the smallest movements of her facial muscles beginning to twitch, followed by her cheeks, her eyelids and ultimately, her long rabbit ears. Even closer and they would see her eyes dull to a haze, with both the void of a veteran hunter's thousand-yard stare and the controlled bloodlust of an assassin.

* * *

As she roamed the halls, less a student and more a force of nature looking for a disturbance, Velvet overheard a conversation. A tall redhead with golden armor and curiously anxious body language was talking to a pair of dark-haired girls at a nearby bench. A distant memory inside of her mind stirred up a recollection of seeing the three girls sitting together not long ago- in the cafeteria.

"Have you seen Jaune?" The tall girl hesitantly asked the two seated girls. Velvet remembered the name. '_Jaune...'_ The seated girls frowned and shook their heads, one of them returning to eyeing the cover of her book.

"He hasn't come back from training yet?" Replied the other girl. "Yang said she ran into Jaune on her way back from the gym." Right, _Jaune_\- that was the name of the face she recognized from the table. The one plastered on the holo-board in Glynda's auditorium. The one who might, if she were lucky enough to find him herself, lead to a run-in with a certain _deserving face_.

It was not much longer before she found the locker rooms, and heard the distant commotion. The voices jumped out at her, even muffled by the walls and distance she knew she would find her mark soon.

A thought occurred to her in her excitement. She turned to the brown box perched at her backside. The same one she was seldom seen without. She reached in to pull out a camera- her camera. Her own personal armory. She tiptoed around a corner and snapped a quick picture of the scene as she finally laid eyes on the two boys. Jaune was held in a haphazard grapple, his arm twisted behind his back forcing him into a kneeling position as Cardin held the back of his neck. Silently, Velvet slipped away into the distance as she activated her weapon.

Moments later, she traipsed out from around the corner, delinquent eyes focusing on Cardin like an eagle, and her hard light replica of the boy's weapon dragging behind her. As she stared head on, her gaze trying to burn a hole in the side of his head with the heat of its dead intent, she reached her arm up and dragged the mock weapon against a row of lockers leading up to the scene of the scuffle.

Hard light scraped against metal and reverberated down the locker room as she approached, gradually and resolutely. By the time she reached them, the blond victim had all but fallen to the floor. _"Oy, Tiny!"_ a mocking voice chided from amidst the hoarse cries of Jaune Arc, begging under the grasp of his tormentor.

Cardin blinked and turned his head to face the new voice in the room. As his eyes set on a familiar pair of long ears, reaching up to barely the level of his chest, he grinned viciously. "Oh, you again," he laughed. "Do those _freakish_ ears not let you know when two men are having a private conversation?" He shoved his blond victim to the ground and narrowed his eyes at the newcomer. "Or did you just come back 'cause you _like_ having them pulled?"

The beleaguered wanna-be hero Jaune summoned up all the strength his spirit had left to muster as he placed his weight back on his legs and stood up to defend her. Though he could barely stand still on his own, only managing to pull himself up to his feet by leaning on his shield, he looked like he was intent on trying to defend her.

A burgundy ear twitched.

"Cardin, _no_," Jaune plead. To the boy's credit, he did seem able to, at the very least, summon up a fairly convincing stern quality to his voice. But it was too late to play pretend right now, and she wouldn't hear any more of his hollow display of bravado. "I won't let you hurt- _ahhh!_"

Velvet leaned to the side, placing her hands around the boy's arm and shoulder, and practically threw Jaune to the ground herself, brushing his performative heroics aside the way one would swat away a distracting fly. _'Sorry- you had your chance to play hero back at the lunch tables, kid,'_ she thought. As she turned her sights to Cardin - to her _prey_ \- she found herself surging with violent desire, and in the moment, in this situation, with the day she'd had, she honestly couldn't find it in herself to resent it- nor to resist it. "You wanna dance so badly, _meathead?_" Amber eyes lifted up to leer at the bully, piercing through thick strands of auburn hair. "Why don't you find a partner who can stay on their feet?" She grinned smugly as she taunted him, an alien thrill coursing though her body. _"Unless... you're scared I'll knock a few too many rocks loose in that hollow tree trunk you call a head!"_ Her free hand twitched in anticipation as she swung her hard-light replica over her shoulder. She pulled back down on the handle to swing it forward and point it at him.

Cardin's smile gave way to gritted teeth, and the rest of his composure quickly caved in to follow. "Who do you think you are, _rodent?!_" he barked back, turning his frame to face her completely. Even as his sinewy neck puffed up, straining his windpipe to add more gruff rasp to his voice, a certain intonation had belied a slight hint of surprise in his reply.

Velvet had to stifle an unexpected laugh, and answered him simply and plainly, in words even he could understand. _"I'm a bad dream~"_ she retorted, almost in singsong. Her lips curled up at the edges as she swung her weapon - _his_ weapon - back over her side and lowered her stance. He nodded and grinned intently, accepting her invitation.

* * *

_Next day,  
_Reunited with her teammates, Velvet the timid faunus girl sat and quietly munched on her sandwich in the loud dining hall. Fox and Yatsuhashi were talking over the latter's notes for today's quiz while a staturely Coco was sipping some freshly brewed coffee from her mug. Noticing Velvet's thermos, she smiled at her teammate. Velvet smiled back at her leader and tilted her head, the motion accented by her long ears sagging to the side.

"Oh, Velvet," Coco began as she reached into her bag and pulled out a large pouch with a dark brown label. "I picked up some more of your _favourite_ while I was out yesterday," she teased.

Velvet quickly cupped her mouth with a hand as she giggled, which her ears once again animatedly emphasized, swaying lightly with every individual beat of her laughter. "Oh thank you, Coco!" She beamed back. "I don't want to know what I'd be like without a fresh cup to start the day!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Velvet noticed four new figures file into the dining hall. Two of Cardin's gruff lackeys held the door open while the third followed in, their leader's arm draped over his shoulder for support. All four of them stomped over to whatever vacant spots remained at as quick a pace as their limping leader's legs would allow, ready to glare at anyone who's eyes lingered in their direction for too long. Cardin kept his head low and stared to the ground as if trying to burn a hole in it with the heat of his gaze.

"I don't know, Velvet, it's hard to imagine _you_ being difficult!" Coco praised as she took another sip of her brew.

As Cardin's teammates helped him over to a free table, the tall leader lifted his head up and found one pair of eyes glued to him. The glare he'd painted on his face so thickly this morning instantly melted away as he took in more of his onlooker's features: the eyes' amber color, the auburn hair draped in strands around them, the lips curled beneath them and the long ears that accented every movement of the faunus girl's head as she followed him with her stare.

"_Hey_ Coco!" Velvet protested playfully, as her eyes stuck to Cardin. "I can be a _tad mean_ when I wanna!" She winked. He broke eye contact and sat down, back facing her. The two girls shared another laugh and carried on with the rest of their lunch happily. Velvet was having a _good_ day.


	2. 2: Exposure

**A/N: For r/RWBY's WPW #178, the prompt I picked was, "Velvet also takes on some personality traits of the people she mimics...for better or worse." (I did, however, admittedly broaden that premise to include her simply taking a picture of the person being enough to trigger the same personality shift.)**

**Instantly, I realized that this fit really well with the premise of the previous chapter, Bad Hare Day (at the time a standalone fic which was also from an earlier WPW prompt).**

**For that reason, this could be considered a semi-continuation of that fic, with a different look into why Velvet was acting the way she did in Bad Hare Day. However, this was never planned and it's not necessary to read BHD first; you are missing out on literally no context if you choose to read one and not the other.**

**Also, some of the personalities portrayed in this fic are... a tad exaggerated. Think more RWBY CHIBI than RWBY proper.**

**This may be a glorified shitpost, but hopefully it's a decently fun shitpost, at least!**

* * *

_**Exposure**_

* * *

"Well _that_ was pleasant!" Velvet hummed happily as she trotted alongside her friend and leader, Coco. The pair were making their way from the airship landing drop, down the marble pathway back towards Beacon academy.

Scroll in hand, Velvet thumbed through the fresh memories she'd captured with those two Mistralian boys Coco dragged her along to meet.

"I told you," her leader teased. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

_"Wellllllll..."_ she mused, "it wasn't, once you came to my rescue at the cafe!"

At first, of course, Velvet was apprehensive to come along with two strangers in the party. That hesitance had only worsened when one of them began overtly flirting with her as the four sat down together at the quaint outdoor cafe Coco had led them to.

Thankfully, however, the fashionista quickly disarmed the boy's attempts towards her teammate with her own infamous charisma.

Thinking about the look on his face made Velvet giggle as she vividly replayed the scene in her head from memory.

_"Oh..." Coco drawled out, doffing her sunglasses to meet the boy's eyes through her half-lidded gaze. "_Neptune,_ was it...?"_

_The blue-haired boy turned his suave expression away from the now-debilitatingly flustered Velvet and towards the woman sitting just to her side. His eyes instantly locked in place as he met Coco Adel's signature smolder. With an audible gulp, his lips parted, the tube to his bubble tea still dangling loosely in their grasp._

_"Y-Yes miss...!" He squeaked out, his mouth dropping the wide straw back into its beverage. It hit the bottom of the cup with a _'thud' _just loud enough to briefly alert him to his own helpless captivation by the woman's stare._

_"I'm afraid my Velvet here is rather shy..." she explained slowly. "She's not the flirty type, I'm sorry to say."_

_"O-Of course," he apologized, his head angling downward in reflex. "I'm s-"_

_"But," She cut him off abruptly, gripping the hollow stirring straw of her latte between her fingers and thumb. She narrowed her soft eyes at the boy and took a long, steady sip before she continued. At the end of her intake, her lips curled up, pupils briefly fluttered up to the sky and eyelids shut in an expression of unadulterated bliss._

_Neptune's own eyes widened to the size of biscuits as he watched her display._

_"If you think you can handle a woman who can hold her own," she purred, giving the stirrer a gentle nibble with her teeth. "... Find me on campus."_

Coco grinned as she and her friend approached the door to the dorm building. "You can argue my methods, Velvet, but you can't argue my results," she winked.

Velvet giggled even more animatedly now. "I thought his whole body was going to turn as blue as his hair! He hardly said another word that entire day!"

The pair walked in silence for most of the way to their room.

Out of the corner of her eye, Coco noticed one of the two long rabbit ears twitch once. She shrugged it off.

Twice.

_'Hm,'_ she eyed her teammate inquisitively for a moment, but ultimately payed it no more mind.

Velvet's face beamed as they strode down the corridor. She seemed to be in good spirits. That was good enough for Coco.

She was even making... eye contact with various passersby, she noticed.

Coco raised an eyebrow.

And she was... smiling?

_'Huh. Maybe a little breaking the ice over coffee is all it takes to break her out of her shell.'_ She shrugged and set her gaze forward ahead of her.

_"Ehehe~"_

The strange chuckle at her side, however, quickly drew her attention back to her teammate.

_"... Ladies~"_

Coco froze in her tracks as she turned to see exactly what Velvet was up to.

Her friend - the quiet, timid Velvet Scarlatina - was winking, shooting finger pistols and cat-calling a group of girls passing them in the hallway. Each one seemed to wear her own mix of confusion, surprise and apprehension on her face.

"Velvet!" Another voice rang out from behind the pair.

Coco and her flirtatious, faunus friend turned around to see Blake and Yang waving and hurrying over to them.

"How are you two doing?" Blake asked with a smile.

_"Me?"_ Velvet asked, a sly grin plastered on her face. "I'm doing great! ... now that _you're_ here, Kitten~"

Yellow and violet eyes shot open to the width of saucers at the normally reserved Velvet's bold response. Blake's ears flexed backwards and a blush lit her face a dark red.

_"Velvet!"_ Coco scolded, her eyebrows climbing above the frames of her shades in shock.

"D-Did you just..." Yang pointed at the rabbit and choked back a laugh. "Did you just call her _'Kitten'?!_"

"Maybe I did..." Velvet admitted smugly before bouncing a suggestive eyebrow up at the blonde. "... Jealous, _Hot Stuff?_"

Yang's mouth hung open in the air and her own blush formed.

Blake's hands shot to her lips stifle her own laughter at her stunned partner.

"I'm sorry girls..." Coco offered in a slightly nervous voice. "Velvet... isn't herself right now."

Quickly she grabbed the girl's arm and tugged lightly, rushing her along to their room. "We'll catch up later! See you!"

_"Wow, Coco... feisty today are we~?"_ Velvet's chuckle and smooth talk could be heard all the way down the hallway as Blake and Yang simply watched the two leave.

_"... I like it~"_

_"No you _don't_, Velvet! Be quiet!"_

* * *

It was a boring day.

Classes had gotten out early and the sophomore team had nothing scheduled for the rest of the daylight. Yatsuhashi took the extra time to relax in his bed while Fox lazed about on the sofa and Coco thumbed through the latest issue of her fourth favorite fashion magazine.

"Hey, either of you guys seen Velvet today?" Coco turned to ask as she folded a corner of the magazine page she was reading and got up from her desk.

Fox, as if on a spring, whipped his head around to the direction of her voice. "What do _you_ think?" He teased with a grin.

Coco shook her head and gave the back of his a light smack with the rolled-up booklet as she passed by en route to her own bed.

"Ow!" He feigned, gripping his head.

Coco let out a huff of air watching him whining and writhing on the couch like the smart-ass he was.

"You're lucky you're hot," she threatened, rolling her eyes.

"She left a few hours ago to go shopping," Yatsuhashi offered. "She said she'd be back around..." he paused, checking the time on his scroll, "forty minutes ago."

_"Wow,"_ Coco hummed. "A _helpful_ teammate! Imagine that!"

Fox merely chuckled from across the room.

"Thank you, Yatsu," she turned warmly to the gentle giant, sarcastic tone now absent from her voice.

He nodded and smiled in return.

Not long after, Fox heard the characteristic sounds of a gentle, familiar patter on the floor of the hallway outside their room.

"Incoming," he announced.

His teammates looked over in his direction.

"T-minus five."

By now he had gotten good at tracing the timing of his teammates' approach based on the sounds of their footsteps. He owed this knack to both his heightened hearing and his familiarity with the quirks and patterns of his teammates' gaits after over a year spent living together.

"Four...?"

His head twitched and eyes squinted as the number came out with a quizzical tone. This was definitely the sound of Velvet's feet, but something about their cadence was subtly off.

"Three?"

He was speeding up his pacing to keep up with the unexpectedly lively rhythm of her feet clacking along the surface of the hallway floor.

"Tw-"

The mistimed count barely had time to register as a sharp hiss of air before the door to their room swung open and revealed the brightly beaming bunny as she bounded inside.

"_Sal-u-tations_, team-mates!" Velvet enunciated cheerfully.

_'Huh...'_ Caught off guard, Fox raised an eyebrow at her uncharacteristically boisterous entrance.

Coco let out a chuckle, "well, if it isn't the girl of the hour!"

"Apologies for my tardiness, everyone; I just met the nicest, cutest girl downtown! She was so friendly and she had the most adorable freckles! I just _had_ to snag a selfie with her!" She giggled and made her way over to the small kitchen area to begin unpacking her bags.

"I took the liberty of doing some grocery shopping while I was out too! We were getting low on bread, eggs and creme..." she rattled off. _"And carrots..."_ she muttered under her breath as she began restocking the team's food supply.

"Aw, you didn't have to do that, dear." Coco smiled. Velvet was always kind and never failed to notice when their kitchen stock was running low, but she hardly ever went out grocery shopping on her own like that.

"Hey," Velvet dismissed with a hand wave in her leader's direction, "what are friends fo-...?"

Suddenly, Velvet pulled herself out of the minifridge sitting against the wall and stood still and statuesque.

Yatsuhashi tilted his head at her as her response ceased. "... Velvet?"

She unfroze her posture and walked straight ahead towards Coco, looking around between her and the rest of her team.

"Friends..." she repeated.

Her eyes peered into Coco's and her stare suddenly seemed to extend for miles. "Are we... _'friends'_?" She swiftly tilted her head into an angle with the movement of a clock's hand and her long rabbit ears leaned to favor the side.

The room fell silent and her eyes soon started to break away from her roommates. The uncomfortable shock of the question was her only answer for several moments and an open frown soon began taking hold of her face.

"... _What?_" Fox asked in her direction, sensing the quiet discomfiture of the atmosphere just as well as anyone else, but also similarly at a loss for how to break it.

Velvet's surprising question had stirred Yatsuhashi out of his relaxed position in his bed and he walked over to her. "Of course we are, Velvet..." He knelt by her side and rested a large hand on her shoulder. "Are you feeling okay?"

Looking at her face was enough to alleviate his concern somewhat; her expression was finally lightening up, and a smile overtook the heart-breaking frown she had been wearing.

Coco blinked, removing her shades and folding them up. "How could... you think we possibly weren't?"

Suddenly, she broke into a happy pounce and wrapped her arms as well as she could around Yatsuhashi. "Thank you!"

She bounded over to Coco and to Fox to do the same.

"Oh! That's right!" She shot up one last time and hurried over to finish packing away her shopping haul as she continued. "I've got plans to hang out with Blake soon, but I'll be back tonight!" She looked up at the ceiling in thought for a moment. "I estimate this social engagement to last for approximately... three hours and twenty-seven minutes, including travel time!"

As she rushed herself out of the door, she turned back to grin to her teammates once again. "See you later..." she sang, an excited beam growing across her face in anticipation of the final word, _"friends~!"_

Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi stared at the empty door in awe of their friend's bizarre new antics. A silence hung over their room as they each processed what had just happened.

Finally, Coco shook herself out of bafflement and whipped her head around to the others.

"Okay. We _have_ to find out what is going on with that girl."

They agreed and began mulling over the strange new patterns and mannerisms of the normally quiet and timid Velvet Scarlatina.

For a moment, Fox tapped his chin in thought before an idea crossed his mind.

"Well," he hesitated. "Could be _sad_, maybe..."

"Mmm..." Yatsuhashi hummed pensively. "Possibly."

Coco frowned and her head dropped into her palm as she looked between the boys. "You guys think Velvet's upset about something?"

"Oh!" Fox turned around to his leader quickly and shook his head. "No no, I didn't mean _sad_-sad," he corrected, "I meant _SSAD_."

"Seasonal Semblance Affective Disorder," Yatsuhashi elaborated as he brought a hand to his chin in consideration. "That could explain a thing or two..."

Coco blinked. "... _What._"

"Yeah," Fox began, gesturing emptily in the air. "It's like, sometimes the seasons mess with your aura and semblance, and everything just feels kinda... out of whack?"

_"Out of whack,"_ Coco mused. "That certainly does describe Velvet's behavior as of late..."

* * *

The smell of the butter and syrup reached her nostrils and already her face lit up in anticipation.

"Ahhhh~" Velvet could practically taste it on her lips. The sweet, scrumptious scent of freshly-cooked pancakes was like heaven to her this morning.

Yatsuhashi set their plates down on the trays they'd pulled out and he sat down on the sofa. Velvet quickly took her seat next to him and proceeded to dig in.

As she ate, Velvet couldn't help but catch herself glancing his way every now and then. She was holding onto her gratitude, but hadn't yet found an opening to pull the tall boy out of his breakfast.

It was likely at her suggestion that he had offered to serve this treat for breakfast this morning, after all.

Finally, he showed on opening. He reached for his cup to take a drink and as he was setting it back down, Velvet took her shot.

"Thanks again, Yatsuhashi!" She beamed, wiping her lips with a napkin. "Nora really got me hooked on these last night..." She trailed off sheepishly.

He smiled lightly and waved it off with a nod.

She watched with a lingering grin as the gentle giant stretched and closed his eyes, his face as stoic and unrevealing as ever.

Yatsuhashi was a man of few words. He had never exactly worn his emotions on his sleeve, but he was kind and caring. His loving attitude towards his teammates was something he didn't have to show; it came across in his actions. In his quiet, comforting presence. In the way that even right now, she could just sit down next to him and feel at peace while she ate her breakfast and lightly uncoiled her index finger from the fringe of her bangs.

Wait... when had she started playing with her hair?

Ah well. She shrugged it off. It wasn't a big deal. Nothing seemed like big deal with him around, in fact.

Yatsuhashi was the kind of guy you could just sit down in silence with and almost be able to feel all of the negativity and stress in your mind and body just... fade away into nothing. He just had that sort of effect on her.

On _people. _In general. That's what she meant.

Not just her. Surely.

After all, who _wouldn't_ have that sort of a reaction by just being around him? Everything about him was inviting; he never talked over you, never presumed what you were feeling and he was a wonderful listener.

All of this, and she knew still that there was an unshakable air of mystery about him. She'd learned about his life only vaguely in the year and a half they had known each other. She knew that he had a troubling experience in his childhood, and that he was afraid of something. Even if he'd never show it.

He'd shoulder all of that burden on himself... so that no one else had to worry about him.

Sometimes, Velvet just wished he would talk to her. That he would confide in her, let her be there for him like he was there for her if she needed it.

_Twitch._

Huh. _That's funny_, she thought. She never knew she fancied the 'strong and silent' type before...

Suddenly, she shook her head. _'Wait-... What?'_

Her eyebrows furrowed. Her eyelids narrowed and her mouth parted open as the pleasure of Yatsuhashi's calm, relaxing company lept across her mind.

Where did _that_ thought come from?! She was supposed to be eating and getting ready for class, she didn't have time for this!

She didn't have time to be considering how steady Yatsuhashi's body felt against hers, or to notice that the heat his presence was producing caused a faint, warm tickle to reach the surface of her skin.

_Twitch._

She definitely did _not_ have time to play around with the thought of how it would feel if she just... nudged her body ever so slightly to rest against his. To think about how the tickling sensation might kick up if her cheek came to lay against the firm sinews of his well-built arm right next to her face.

She winced as she thought about all sorts of things she _didn't_ have time to think about.

Her confusion and frustration with these sudden intrusive thoughts had produced a gentle whimper and the tall warrior turned to look at her.

"Velvet?"

His gentle voice poured over her like a warm shower, pulling her out of her thoughts and into his gaze.

"... Are you alright?"

Her lips trembled emptily in reply at first. Soon realizing she hadn't been saying anything at all, she took a breath and straightened herself out.

"I'm fine, Yatsu!"

She smiled and barely even noticed her leaning into him even more. Being this close to Yatsuhashi just felt _right_.

He shrugged and returned to take another sip of coffee.

"... How could I not be with you here with me?" Velvet blurted in little more than a whisper.

This caught the boy's attention. His eyes widened and his head swung back to her, this time with a faintly noticeable reddening on his cheeks.

For a moment, the pair sat looking at each other in silence.

Suddenly, the telltale clack of Coco's house slippers pulled her attention away from the gaze.

"Didn't expect to see you two up so early," she lightly taunted, "just eating together..."

_"We're not!"_ Velvet whipped her head around to face Coco faster than she could blink.

The fashionista's only response was a subtle, inquisitive raising of her eyebrows as she studied the girl's mannerisms.

"I-I mean," Velvet softened, a blush reddening her already-flustered cheeks. "It's not like that-... Yatsuhashi and I- We're not like..." Her eyes ripped themselves away from Coco and darted frantically between various spots on the floor.

"We're not together," she managed to declare in as firm a voice as she could muster.

"Right, Yatsuha-...?" The name was cut short in a gasp as she turned to look back at him.

She met his eyes, already peering into hers by the time her vision had focused. They pulled her in like an ocean current, and she happily surrendered to the tide. Her entire body felt locked into place and the thumping in her heart escalated to a racing gallop.

There was something about him now that she couldn't shake. Something that... _something new_ inside of her wanted more of.

She wanted more of her_ tall,__ dark-haired,__ q__uiet, stoic, caring t__eammate..._

And it didn't hurt that he made the most _delicious_ pancakes as well.

* * *

Well, this was it.

Preparations for the fastly-approaching 40th Vytal festival were wrapping up and the school was now home to yet more students, with nearly a hundred new faces on campus. The dorm's vacant rooms now housed competitors from the other kingdoms' huntsman's academies and all the hallways of Beacon seemed to be just a couple of new bodies more full.

Team CFVY had been invited to participate in the tournament and, eager to prepare for the potential match-ups, Coco had enlisted her team to help gather information. Yatsuhashi had taken post in the training rooms to observe any fighting styles or semblances of the possible competitors and Fox was roaming the fairgrounds in search of any new voices to overhear discussing plans and strategies.

While Coco was working her charm and mingling with any of the visiting students she could, Velvet had been given free reign and the camera function of her scroll was getting even more use than it had on the first day of the school year.

Thumbing through a couple of the recent photos in her album, Velvet began committing new faces to her characteristically acute memory. When the most recent subject came up in the frame of her scroll, she felt an ear twitch as she took in the image.

The black hair.

The golden eyes.

_Twitch._

The smoldering glare and cheeky half-grin peered back at her in the holo screen of her scroll and Velvet could feel her insides seemingly start to boil.

_Twitch._

She was being consumed by something. Some urge. Some compulsion was taking hold of her. She didn't know what it was, or what it meant. She just knew she had the desire to be a little bit... _nefarious_ at the moment.

Her eyes narrowed to a glare and the corners her lips pulled up into a wicked grin. Her head quickly shot from side to side, eyes focused and scanning for any havoc she could wreak upon the festival-goers.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she bounced towards a crowd lining up at a nearby ice cream stall.

The loosely-held single file line was the perfect way for her to make her discreet entry into the scene of the crime!

She patiently waited for the line to draw shorter and shorter, all the while beaming like a child.

An _evil_ child!

Finally, her stage was set; the person in front of her had just taken their place at the vendor's table and she was the next in line.

A couple of lien fell to the ground in front of her.

"Oops! Gosh am I clumsy today!" She all but shouted as she reached down to pick up the dropped goods. _'They bought it! Distraction successful!'_

The perfect alibi. The perfect insidious plot, and the perfect execution so far. All there was left to do was make the one final move... aaaaaaaaaaand...

Bingo.

The transaction was complete. The customer ahead of her took back their card and the cashier handed over the delectable dairy treat. As they turned to walk off, however, a loud shout rang out and everyone in line turned to see the customer had fallen supine on the festival ground, ice cream tossed off and melting into the grass a foot away from his hand. His feet were bound by a hastily-tied knot joining the laces of his shoes together.

All of a sudden, a shrill shriek of laughter rang out amidst the crowd.

_"WAHAHAHA~!"_

Velvet hopped up onto the merchant's stand and cackled victoriously at her evil machinations before sauntering off into the bushes, stalking for her next victim.

There was no going back now. This was her new life.

Villainy.

Treachery...

Mischief!

She loved the rush. She loved the _thrill_ of it. She loved the **_power_ **that this satisfaction gave her.

That's right, world: no more Ms. Nice, Quiet Bunny Girl to toss around! After a life spent running and being preyed upon, she had finally turned the tables and become the predator!

No more hiding in the corner. No more teasing and taunting. And absolutely _no_ more getting walked on by other people! _She_ was on top now! This was _her_ world, and if you had a problem with that, then you were in for a rude awakening! _Tremble beneath her or get stomped out of her way! **Muahahahaha!**_

Skulking the grounds for her next unwitting victim, she felt a ping of excitement as a familiar voice hit her long lapin ears.

"_Team Indigo_, huh?" Coco smiled, letting the word roll of her tongue. "It has _such_ a nice ring to it."

Nebula smiled confidently. "Thank you. We're gonna give it our all this year!"

"Oh, I _can't wait_ to see that!" Coco winked and took note of the couple of blushes she'd elicited out of the girls.

"Are you girls from around he-**YEEEEEEEP!**"

She startled as she felt something amiss. Her hands shot up to the top of her head, feeling around only to find that her signature hat had come off.

She whipped around and found it behind her, being twirled in the hands of one Velvet Scarlatina before she turned tail and fled.

_"**YOU.**"_ She shouted, raising a finger in the direction of the bouncing bunny making off with her beret. "Get back here _right now_, Velvet!"

The disobedient girl proudly pranced away, purloined hat perched on top of her head. She didn't have to listen to anybody anymore!

Coco slapped a hand to her face and growled under her breath.

"I'm sorry, ladies," she mustered through gritted teeth, drawing on the last of her composure. "We'll have to save this for another time..."

Her fist clenched and the girls of Team NDGO began to distance themselves from the conversation.

"...Once I figure out _WHAT IN THE_ _**DUST** HAS GOTTEN INTO MY TEAMMATE!_" Coco shouted in her direction, chasing her down.

Nebula blinked, mouth agape. Gwen and Octavia stood similarly speechless.

Dew raised a nervous finger to point in the direction of the strange girls and turned to the rest of her team.

"I... really hope we don't have to go against _them _in the tournament."

* * *

Coco sat on the large coffee-colored sofa of the sophomore team's dorm, reclining with her feet on the ottoman she'd bought to match.

Her laptop scroll's holo-screen hovered above her lap and the last of her drink's heat was dissipating into the air of the living area.

In the lower-right corner of her screen, a new notification had popped up.

* * *

**Instagrimm:**

**ScarletV3L** has uploaded a new album!

* * *

A curious Coco clicked on the link and a slew of images of Team RWBY, their dog Zwei and Velvet had flooded her browser window. The most recent caption read, "hanging out with R0seR3D, YangBang, TheWeiss_Schnee and Blake! also 2weiThePup is so cute~!"

Coco chuckled while scrolling through the feed, noticing all of the pictures she'd been amassing- of all sorts of people.

She chuckled to herself. Velvet was _dangerous_ with a camera.

Come to think of it. she had really been quite the social butterfly this semester, hadn't she?

_'Maybe that's why she's been so unpredictable lately...'_ Coco pondered. _'Could it be the shock of all of those new friends at once?'_

Then she scrolled back up far enough to see a familiar cerulean blue.

_That kid... 'Neptune'?_

That was the day Coco started showing these bizarre signs.

She wasn't acting like herself that day at all.

Coco gasped.

She was acting like that _boy_.

"Oh gods..."

Frantically scrolling back down, she replayed all of the scenes of late where Velvet had been so erratic and troublesome - so _out of whack,_ as Fox had said - and matched each one to a different event on her Instagrimm feed.

Neptune.

The girl downtown.

Nora.

The fairgrounds.

_"Semblance... Disorder..."_ She all but mumbled under her breath.

Her _semblance!_ When she used her Photographic Memory, she wasn't just memorizing fighting styles; she was memorizing their personalities and behaviors as well! In her seasonally afflicted state, she'd been enacting these people's mannerisms instead of their combat styles.

Yatsuhashi took notice of her muttered words. "What's wrong?"

Without an answer, Coco bounded up from her seat.

"Come on!" she urged him, grabbing Fox by the arm and racing to the door. "We've got to go. _Now!_"

Together they raced down the hallways, swerving past students and staff, as Coco led them to Team RWBY's dorm room.

* * *

"Awwww, look guys!" Ruby squealed, ruffling the hair behind a furry ear with her fingers. "This is so _cute!_"

Yang, Blake and Weiss were gathered around in between the makeshift bunkbeds, watching in adoration. Ruby sat up in Weiss' bed, smiling ear to ear at the warm pants of air buffering at her side as her fingers worked their magic. She laughed at the way the fuzzy ears flopped as her hand moved between them and the spastic beating against her thigh as a twitching leg kicked out a happy pattern into her lap.

The door burst open to the sight of Coco, gasping and sweating, eyes scanning the room for her faunus friend.

"There she is!" She quickly found Velvet, curled up in Ruby's lap and receiving a medley of ear scritches, headpats and backrubs as the rest of her team doted on the scene.

Yatsuhashi sighed as he rounded the corner.

Fox came following behind, unsure of whether the sudden halt was a good or bad sign. "Were we too late?"

"Of course not!" Yang turned to the new arrivees. "We were just getting ready to watch her and Zwei play book-fetch!"

_"Arf!"_ Velvet barked, her pants coming out as heavy and excitedly as ever as she lept over to her greet her friends.

Ruby pulled a book from the shelf against the dorm's center window and tossed it into the far corner, nearly knocking a lamp off of the desk. "Go fetch, Zwei!"

On command, the dog scampered off to retrieve the book and place it back at his owner's feet.

Wordlessly, Coco fell to her knees on the floor.

Her mind utterly defeated at what she was witnessing, she simply sat. And stopped thinking about it. It hurt to think by this point.

She sat there, on the floor, staring into a point a thousand yards beyond her sight as Velvet scampered over to her and greeted her with sloppy doggy kisses on her cheek. Yatsuhashi and Fox knelt down beside her and ran their hands through Velvet's bunny ears and along her fur-less back, still clad in her usual huntress uniform.

Velvet was _dangerous_ with a camera.


End file.
